Eunice

Eunice is a young woman that we met at the Ewasuo Primary School, which is about 8 kilometres away from Najile. Eunice was 12 years old when her dad told her that he was going to sell her to a 60 year old man as his 3rd or 4th wife, for the equivalent of about $200. Eunice had seen this happen to her two older sisters and knew that she did not want this kind of life. The night before she was to be married she ran away. She ran for two days and nights, and ended up outside the gates of a primary school. In the morning, a teacher found her, listened to her story, and took her into his family, and raised her as his daughter. Eunice's story is not unique. It is common. It is her courage that is strikingly unique and amazing. She is now 17 years old, and is the leader of the Peer Educator group at the Ewasuo Primary School, and is finishing grade 7. She went through four grades in one year. Her teacher, Timothy Tanin, has become a true father figure to her, and his encouragement and support has allowed her to grow in confidence and to share her story with other students. We were so touched by her courage to tell her story. We videotaped her two times, trying to get all of the details of her story. When she was done, she was exhausted and wept in our arms. The video does not do justice to the trauma that she has faced. But it clearly shows her courage and strength. I will never forget her.

Video of Eunice

Survival Tips from Clare and Jesse

Enta Sopa oleng!!!!

This is once again Nashipae (Clare) and Namunyak (Jesse) back in Canada. We thought it was about time to write up another blog and possibly give you some pointers if you ever choose to go to Najile, Kenya.

1. You should first understand that there is no such thing as personal space. We discovered this while camping on Mount Suswa with the VCT staff over many events while staying there. During the night, in our 2 person tent with 4 people staying in it (and all the food for the week), we found that sleeping on top of one another was considered normal? ( Elizabeth had no problem sleeping flat on top of Clare). We also soon learned that it is ok to whip down your pants and take a little 'sit' (squat), even if you are surrounded by crowds of people. This took a while to adjust to, but eventually we didnt really care.

2. Be prepared to feel like massive giraffes in a zoo. Well...maybe we only felt this because we are two massively tall white girls in a foregin country. But seriously...waking in the morning to crowds of children peeking through your window or tent was how we started our day. We had many occations where we attempted to shoo them away...but it seemed that everything we said was absolutely hilarious to them. This became a little frustrating.

3. Goat is considered a very special food to eat. Not only the meat of the goat..but eveything..including the hooves, heart, lungs and tongue.This was not so special for us. It took us a while to figure out exactly what it tasted like..but after spending some time surrounded by herds of goats, we soon realized that it tastes exactly how they smell..which is not too pleasant. We also discovered that if you have the choice to eat inside our outside...outside is definetly the place to eat. This gives you a chance to sneakily chuck the goat pieces over your shoulder with a small flick of the wrist. You must undestand that this food was not going to waste. The hungry dogs enjoyed it very much which made us feel much less guilty. However, sometimes we ate inside. This is when a napkin comes in handy to 'wipe your mouth'.

4. Bathing with a small tin of water is much harder than you think. Not only is the water for yourself..but for the following person using it. It was even more difficult for both Jesse and I to bath in the maasai huts. These huts are not made for people over 5 feet.. it was a little tight but we managed to squeeze our long limbs inside and somehow divide the small cup of water between us evenly.

5. You may be forced to drink a traditional maasai drink or 'herb' on special occasions. This herb is made up of all the rare roots of trees on Mount Suswa mixed with goat fat and water that and then fermented over a long period of time. On Clares birthday, a large cup of this was given to drink. We had a pretty good sleep after that.

Toads between your toes, mosquito nets wrapped around you like a cocoon, special herb drinks, leopards and hyenas lurking behind every acacia tree...well, not really...milking goats and making cjapaties and chai...it really could not get any better than that! An amazing two extra weeks. We wish we could go back! Olesari! Nashipae and Namunyak

Three weeks ago today we arrived home from Najile. The memories are still fresh, but every day seems to make the distance between Calgary and Najile grow. Almost daily text messages with Joseph help, but all of us miss Kenya and want to go back! Today was Elizabeth's pre-wedding. We were fortunate to be in Najile for Joseph's pre-wedding, and celebrate with his family and friends.

MCC Alberta held a World AIDS Day event at Foothills Mennonite Church on Tuesday evening. Anne, Henry, Kari, Byron and I each took a theme and shared stories, images and what we learned on our trip. Henry and Byron spoke about food and water security/insecurity. Kari shared about the Lari Peace Memorial Museum, the peace clubs and computer initiative. Anne spoke about the peer educators and PLHA's (People Living with HIV/AIDS) that we met in Najile and area. And I tried to pull all of the themes together and hopefully explain how critical each of those themes are to the other...oh, and then talk about the music and recording and cd #4. It was a great evening! A highlight for me was the candle lighting that took place after the sharing. Kari invited people to come to the front to light a candle as a sign of their commitment to take their place in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In the background the recording that we did in Najile of "Glory Bound" was playing. Very moving time.

Jesse and Clare are home! They arrived on Sunday afternoon, and have more hilarious adventures to share! And also some really touching and profound experiences. The Kiranto family hosted them for two weeks, and taught them to milk goats, make chipatis (sp?), chai, and more!

From 30 above in Najile to minus 12 and falling...and a 4 foot snow drift outside our back door! Home...

World AIDS Day and Food Security

The event at Westgate last night was good. Lots of good info, good food, etc. MCC shared the evening with a local group called Focus Africa. They support a number of projects in Kenya, and MCC (through Ten Thousand Villages) has teamed up with them.

I think we kept our presentation close to the required time... it included a number of videos. Joshua shared about the food security work and how it is tied to Generations at Risk. The Food Security work helps people learn to produce their own food and it is a source of food for people who need it in this time of drought. Both angles are shown in this video... the second half is particularly conflicting for me... as people receive food and you see all the Canadian flags... and I know that it's good that we send food but, of course, our lifestyle has impact on so many people around the world.

Anyway, I was proud of Joshua who spent an hour lugging 50kg bags of beans off a big truck in the darkness. He came back exhausted and completely blackened by dust.

Maasai Food Security Program from darryl on Vimeo.